Information on the NORCAL release

[Oliver]

Yes some more information would be most welcome. I don't know how many times that release date has been pushed. All perfectly fine of course as long as there is good communication. In the end everyone wants a good product so any delay due to additional testing or adding new features or whatever is great. Let me be the first one to admit that! If however the product is on hold due to lack off commitment to complete the installer from this Indi guy, perhaps someone else is more suitable for his job. As I said before why wasn't the installer worked on much earlier in the process if it's so very complicated. X-plane 10 is slowly approaching and for me personally I am starting to question my purchase plan for Norcal since we don't know exactly what the new X-plane version will feature, the compatibility issues and so on.

Sorry for the rant.

Mike

       

Trust me I'm sure Indi- is working his ass off to have a working installer, and to get the package all set up...

[mikced]

Trust me Oliver if this was the time in between X-plane versions I would not worry too much, but with a new X-plane version around the corner that might very well have all the roads data I need, the detailed landclass and the mesh for a realistic VFR flight this might very well make Realscenery somewhat obsolete. Thats what worries me Oliver, nothing more and nothing less. 

Mike 

[Oliver]

Trust me Oliver if this was the time in between X-plane versions I would not worry too much, but with a new X-plane version around the corner that might very well have all the roads data I need, the detailed landclass and the mesh for a realistic VFR flight this might very well make Realscenery somewhat obsolete. Thats what worries me Oliver, nothing more and nothing less.   

Mike   

I mean I understand where you're comming from, the thing is  I certainly doubt that even XP 10 will have land textures as realistic as Real Scenery, I mean just Norcal is around 90GBs so I doubt that the whole XP world will include scenery that detailed

[Cameron]

Yes some more information would be most welcome. I don't know how many times that release date has been pushed. All perfectly fine of course as long as there is good communication. In the end everyone wants a good product so any delay due to additional testing or adding new features or whatever is great.

It's due to additional testing and fixes of features already in place.

If however the product is on hold due to lack off commitment to complete the installer from this Indi guy, perhaps someone else is more suitable for his job.

This has little to nothing to do with Indi-, and I know almost no one more suitable for any X-Plane job than him.

As I said before why wasn't the installer worked on much earlier in the process if it's so very complicated.

An installer has been available for ages. In fact, since day one of ANY RealScenery product sales. The new installer was necessary for quality purposes and a smooth experience. There is much more to delivering this product than the program alone...such as the backend server integration to drive the installer itself. The ENTIRE system has had an overhaul. Bear in mind that NORCAL was originally "completed" about a year ago and was only 10GB in size. The original installer was plenty suitable for the delivery of a product that size, however, we scrapped that version of NORCAL with new source data and the size has grown to a 40+ GB download. Changes are made as things are accomplished. None of this is a cheap process, you know.

X-plane 10 is slowly approaching and for me personally I am starting to question my purchase plan for Norcal since we don't know exactly what the new X-plane version will feature, the compatibility issues and so on.

Considering the fact that X-Aviation is heavily involved with X-Plane 10 development, we're quite secure here. None of our products will not not be compatible with X-Plane 10. While you may not know all the features, we know MANY of them. There are no compatibility issues at all.

[mikced]

Photoscenery takes up much more space than generic landscape tiles so of course it can not cover the globe. Microsoft managed to ship detailed landclass, realistic roads and decent mesh on 2 discs coverng the whole globe with Flight Simulator X and I bet X-plane will come close or even improve over the quality of MSFS in version 10. In fact with default MSFS and an addon terrain product like Ultimate Terrain from Flight1 I would see no reason to get MSFS photoscenery and the some would probably apply for X-plane. Anyway today I would have absolutely needed a better VFR experience but tomorrow, who knows.  

Mike

[mikced]

Happy to hear that Cameron :-) that was all I needed to hear, a few words. A short update. So easy, yet so difficult for so many companies for some mysterious reason :-) 

[MannyS]

While Cameron tells us why the delay, still does not answer the question, when is Norcal going to be released.

[Cameron]

While Cameron tells us why the delay, still does not answer the question, when is Norcal going to be released.

When it's ready, and when we're ready.

[mikced]

Good reply Cameron, should never really have been any dates on the Realscenery page to begin with. I might probably not get NorCal myself but will stay tuned for Socal updates and images in the future to come. In the meantime I will enjoy the last nice bits and moments in X-plane 9.

Until then, have a good one

Mike 

[MannyS]

While Mike may not be buying Norcal, I certainly will, hence my anxious inquiry about release date.

[Cameron]

Good reply Cameron, should never really have been any dates on the Realscenery page to begin with. I might probably not get NorCal myself but will stay tuned for Socal updates and images in the future to come. In the meantime I will enjoy the last nice bits and moments in X-plane 9.

Until then, have a good one

Mike   

No worries, Mike!

Always good to enjoy XP in any form you can. We're quite confident our product is still leaps ahead of what version 10 offers after knowing and seeing the details. The default appearance will be a good improvement over what you find in terms of objects on the ground and their respective building textures/cars, but in terms of more enhanced road data and new mesh there's not a whole lot there. Pretty much the same data!

There's plenty of room for a product like ours in the market, and still another 4-5 months till ship date for V 10 to even begin with.

Enjoy!

[Xflyboy]

Thank you for the update Cameron!

I'm looking forward to flying my NEW "C208" over that great scenery.

CC is ready!

[JimmiG]

Photographic scenery will always be more accurate than scenery which is based off land-use and road/river databases, using generic textures and objects.

Also, I assume the scenery will still work (or be made to work) with XP10 

I'll probably buy it when it's finally released. Just don't rename the product to "NorCal Forever"

[RealScenery]

You are right, Jimmy. Ben Supnik posted a response on the ORG today about Austin's X-Plane 10 news. Ben mentioned that previous X-Plane scenery should work fine. I will be testing this with the early beta releases of v10 when they finally hit the streets to make sure they work just as they do in v9. I can assure you that the example provided by Austin today about photo-scenery is not what you'll find with RealScenery. Look at the gallery postings of NorCal, Oahu, and Reno and you can see what you're getting - much different than what he described. Also, the roads in RealScenery are from large-scale data sources and match the imagery very well, not like the more generalized roads present in X-Plane 9. That's the reason for the roads not matching the imagery. In most cases, it is because the roads used by X-Plane are from small-scale sources which are not as positionally accurate as the underlying imagery - that's why you have a road right on top of a Wal-Mart, as he indicated. 

[Simmo W]

Good to hear Eric, yes I saw Austins comments about blurry photoscenery and I think you've got to take the good with the annoying. I personally can't stand flying without G2xpl and in the (better be!) near future, Norcal/Oahu. I can't see how the ground will look recognizable without photoscenery or magically customized objects. my pc can generally run the autogen objects at very high levels, but with photoscenery I often remove all of them, as all those walmarts look comical. Watch my video of Toms falco and tell me Philip Island doesn't look gorgeous. I'm very excited at the accurate positioning of objects etc, combining medium levels of objects with photoscenery will be amazing, plus with those whisps of clouds...ooh I'm gettin all hot and bothered again.

[cw7]

an interview with Eric at RealScenery has been posted at:

http://xplane10.wordpress.com/

[raven1982]

How are things coming on the project?

[RealScenery]

All the distribution details have been developed by X-Aviation, so that is a huge step forward... This release will be a bit different to deliver since you can get everything, or only selected areas. It's very large in byte-size, too, which has made the development of a brand new distribution/installation system critical to allowing delivery by download. This scenery covers a larger area than the new U.K scenery, uses much more recent imagery, includes night textures, and will be available for download - no easy task to put all this together. I'm not disparaging this scenery at all. I was disappointed in the lack of a better delivery system, however.

The resolution is so high that this scenery cannot be downloaded.

 

Any high-quality photo scenery is welcome in our X-Plane community and will be greatly appreciated by many X-Plane pilots. I'm sure the X-Planers in the U.K. are very appreciative for its development! Personally, I think it's great when any large-area photo scenery packages are released. I certainly can relate what these folks went through to get this developed.

One huge advantage of X-Aviation for me is the resources spent on getting products delivered to customers in the most efficient way possible, especially large scenery packages which are several gigabytes in size!

With the size of this release, I would highly advise getting the DVDs as both backup and convenience for re-installing later if necessary.

I believe the Island of Oahu, Hawaii will be delivered first, however, with NorCal soon thereafter.

Eric

[cozydvr]

In referance to your post (below) of flying with photo realistic scenery (Real Scenery is the best you know)

there are places which one would like to fly that photo real has not been developed.  I have seen the BlueSkyScenery converted to XP (a large memory load) and have looked for G2XPL but been unable to obtain a copy. I live in Alabama, of which some of the land is quite beautiful to fly over ... especiall near 3M5 (Moontown airport) which is a privately owned public airport with a great EAA Chapter and lots of activity. I would like to use G2XPL to view this part of the good ole USA in photo real scenery.

Do you have a copy of the G2XPL plugin you couls send me? the Dot_org pulled it some time ago.

Any help you could give will be greately appreciated.  I like to think of trhese kind of things in the EAA way; where we all help each other in order to promote aviation, especially those willing to produce an aircraft at home(built).

I look forward to hearing from you.

My e-mail address is listed in the member "catalog"

All The Best

Gene

Cozydvr

Good to hear Eric, yes I saw Austins comments about blurry photoscenery and I think you've got to take the good with the annoying. I personally can't stand flying without G2xpl and in the (better be!) near future, Norcal/Oahu. I can't see how the ground will look recognizable without photoscenery or magically customized objects. my pc can generally run the autogen objects at very high levels, but with photoscenery I often remove all of them, as all those walmarts look comical. Watch my video of Toms falco and tell me Philip Island doesn't look gorgeous. I'm very excited at the accurate positioning of objects etc, combining medium levels of objects with photoscenery will be amazing, plus with those whisps of clouds...ooh I'm gettin all hot and bothered again.

[Cameron]

Do you have a copy of the G2XPL plugin you couls send me? the Dot_org pulled it some time ago.

Hi, Gene,

I've dealt with you a number of times on behind the scenes to know you're a kind hearted and well spirited individual, so I know you don't mean for ill intention here.

With that said, G2XPL was removed at the request and pressure of Google because it violates many policies Google has.

We do not condone asking for or distribution of this type of software, so please refrain from doing so here.

I know your intentions are well, and I hate to rain on the parade. It's a fine line we walk, and I'll just be the gentle informer instead.

[cozydvr]

Its good top be brought up to speed in such a kind manner; I guess in many ways I have become older and more ignorant than in my "days of summer" ... ie... youth.  Technology does that to a person not in the fast lane any more. 

I love VFR flying; IFR to punch you through some thin layers, then VFR on top till the weather clears.  YIPPIEE!  Once you have seen the world from the "3rd" dimension ... ie ... altitude, your prespective changes for ever.

Thats all I was lookinf for. I have no desire to circumvent(SP?) rights and wishes of others for my own gain.

Any hints or ideas of how I can create photo realistic scenery for un published areas would be greatly appreciated.

Its been a long time since I studied software ... back then it was called Computer Science ... and there was only C with Fortran as the biggie ... but Im rambling, sorry.

Thanks for the heads up.

Gene

Do you have a copy of the G2XPL plugin you couls send me? the Dot_org pulled it some time ago.

Hi, Gene,

I've dealt with you a number of times on behind the scenes to know you're a kind hearted and well spirited individual, so I know you don't mean for ill intention here.

With that said, G2XPL was removed at the request and pressure of Google because it violates many policies Google has.

We do not condone asking for or distribution of this type of software, so please refrain from doing so here.

I know your intentions are well, and I hate to rain on the parade. It's a fine line we walk, and I'll just be the gentle informer instead.

[YYZatcboy]

Any word on the progress of NORCAL?

[Cameron]

Any word on the progress of NORCAL?

NORCAL is currently going through an overhaul to bring it up to the same standard and implemented techniques as Oahu and Reno.

[dpais]

Any word on the progress of NORCAL?

NORCAL is currently going through an overhaul to bring it up to the same standard and implemented techniques as Oahu and Reno.

Is there a prediction for release date of NorCal or is it too early to tell?

[dpais]

Any word on the progress of NORCAL?

NORCAL is currently going through an overhaul to bring it up to the same standard and implemented techniques as Oahu and Reno.

Is there a prediction for release date of NorCal or is it too early to tell?

Could anybody answer my question? Is there a prediction date for the release of NorCal?

Thanks